Chef (2014)

"Dad, Martin just but corn start down his pants and on his junk!" -Percy
"He did?"  Looks around puzzled. "Give me some." -Carl Casper

Always make room in your heart for the little movie that could, less your heart harden and the snively critic inside you will take control.

Here are the reasons I liked Chef: the wierd semi-autobiographical nature of it, its authenticity, and that it made me smell.

I say that Chef is semi-autobiographical in that Jon Favreau prior to acting and directing chef was the director of both Iron Man 1 and Iron Man 2.  The first one heralded, the second widely panned. It is exhausting work and you have to love it. Apparently Jon, no longer loved it. He didn't want to "play his hits", and couldn't make one more chocolate lava cake. So what did he do?  He bought a food tuck..I mean he made a movie about a guy who followed his heart and bought a food truck that allowed him to make the movie...I mean food that he wanted. Oh and I think that Jon cast Sofia Vegara because he probably has the hots for her in real life. (They look so strange together as a couple. hahaha amazing.)

The second reason I liked Chef is that it was clearly made out of a sincere passion for good story telling, No corporate shills had their hands or proxy writers involved in the production or writing, and it shows. The focus on the food and the bond between father and son is allowed to grow and endure through silliness and unexpected heart. (if there were cliches, and I assume there were.  I didn't notice them. And that is hard to do.)

Finally, I have got to hand it Jon Favreau for working so hard to get the right senses working throughout the movie. It is not enough to just to show the food all pretty and expect people to ogle it like a self indulgent tweet of one's dinner.  You have to got the extra mile and chop the veggies, smoke the brisket, and most importantly eat it all with gusto. Then comes the hard part, the visuals are not enough. The sound of the knives, the sizzle of garlic in the pan, the crackle of rock candy under a hammer, the banter (in Spanish) of the cooks, and the music played at the event must be perfect. That is how you get an audience's mouth to water and fake smell cinnamon and sugar cover beignets fresh from the fryer.

Oh and the sound track is just perfect. www.youtube.com/watch?v=s75WIkQBYzk

John Leiguizamo and Oliver Platt are just great.

On a scale of andouille sausage with fried onions, yuca fries, and chili cilantro sauce to a hotdog, I give Chef 3.7 out of 5 stars.